Wisconsin's spring camp is set to kick off on March 26, so BadgerBlitz.com will run through each position group to break down what we know about the 2019 Badgers and what we still need to find out before they start their season on Aug. 30 against South Florida.

As usual, the quarterbacks are up first.

If you were hoping for a shake-up under center for the Badgers in 2019, you got your wish. We learned last week that senior-to-be Alex Hornibrook left the team during winter conditioning an intends to transfer to another program for his final year of college football.

The move came as a surprise—even with the head and back injuries that limited him to just nine games in 2018 it sounded as though Hornibrook was going to go in to his senior year ready to try and retain his starting job and finish his UW career on a high note. Instead the Pennsylvania native will finish out his business degree at Wisconsin before transferring, leaving the Badgers with their first open competition at quarterback since Hornibrook and Bart Houston dueled for the spot left vacant by Joel Stave in the run up to the 2016 season.

Hornibrook's departure leaves the Badgers with four scholarship quarterbacks on campus with the team this spring: junior Jack Coan, who played in five games for UW last year in place of Hornibrook, sophomore Danny Vanden Boom, redshirt freshman Chase Wolf, and much-heralded true freshman Graham Mertz.

Coan's in-game experience likely gives him the inside track on getting the first team work during the first part of spring camp at the very least. If you were laying odds on the competition Coan should probably considered the front-runner to win the starting job in the fall, but it's been a while since the Badgers had an open quarterback battle with this many players who could all make a case to be Wisconsin's new QB1.